


The New Sheriff

by lordofbutt



Category: Banshee (TV)
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, a banshee fic that somehow doesn't have any violence, brock gets chewed out, post-s4, semi fix fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29943627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lordofbutt/pseuds/lordofbutt
Summary: Hood may have left town, but his shadow looms large over Brock, who does some thinking.A oneshot inspired by one of my bigger frustrations with the ending.
Relationships: Lucas Hood & Brock Lotus





	The New Sheriff

Sheriff Brock Lotus sat at his desk in his office, twiddling his badge between his fingers. The title of Sheriff still felt odd to him, no matter how long he'd had it for. It was strange; he'd worked so long to try and fill that spot, and now that he was filling it, it never quite felt like the badge fit him.

Maybe he had become too much like Hood, in the end.

He involuntarily shuddered a little from remembering the name. Fucking Hood. Hood had more or less laid out the whole story to him, just days before he left town, when they were figuring out the whole Bode thing. Brock had pushed just a little too hard, gotten Hood just a little too angry at him, and... Hood just snapped, and let loose a flood of truth that Brock still wasn't sure he'd ever _really_ wanted to know, in hindsight.

It shocked him. It would've shocked anybody, finding out that their boss, the fucking _sheriff,_ was a career criminal who'd done 15 years for a diamond heist. But... something about Hood made it both easier and harder to take, at the same time. On the one hand, it was sort of obvious in hindsight; Hood seemed to treat the letter of the law as if it was a roll of toilet paper, and it was mostly pure luck that he seemed to have his heart in the right place. But on the other... the fact that his heart _was_ so clearly in the right place made it hard to reconcile Sheriff Lucas Hood with the diamond thief with no identity.

Brock held his head in his hands and sighed. It was definitely quieter since the man he'd known as Lucas Hood had left town.

* * *

The Forge was, for all intents and purposes, closed and Sugar Bates was a retired man. Job was an asshole more often than not, but he'd had one thing right: Sugar was too damned old to be slinging drinks. The property was his, though, and he decided to make the best of it and turn it into a nicer home.

Ever since then, the number of people knocking on his door had dropped dramatically, as if Hood walking out of his door was some sort of symbol of the end. That was fine by him, but it certainly made him raise an eyebrow when he heard a few knocks on his door.

He answered it, and was greeted by a short, somewhat overweight, heavily balding man with a thick beard. Sheriff Lotus.

"Sheriff," Sugar said, awkwardly.

"Hey," Brock said, equally awkwardly.

"Everything alright?" the retired boxer-cum-bartender asked. "Not often I get visitors, these days."

"Yeah, yeah, no, everything's fine. I'm off-duty," Brock said. "Just... got to thinking about something, and I figured you were probably the best person to ask."

"Well, come in, then," Sugar said, clearing the way for Brock to come in. "Can I get you a drink?"

Brock raised his eyebrow.

"Do I have to pay for it?" he asked. Sugar laughed.

"Oh, c'mon, Sheriff. Bar's been closed. I'm offering as a friend; you sound like you're in a mood and could use it," Sugar said. Brock smiled.

"Yeah, you're not wrong. Got any Jameson?" Brock asked.

Sugar poured two glasses of whiskey, and handed one to Brock, who took a small sip.

"So, what's the trouble?" Sugar asked, sitting in an armchair across from the sheriff.

"Remember Hood?" Brock asked, prompting Sugar to look at him like he'd grown a second head.

"How could I _not_ remember Hood?" Sugar responded. "Christ, it was like some new trouble every other day with him." Brock laughed heartily.

"Yeah, no shit," Brock said. "Did you know he was an ex-con?" Sugar blinked.

"Um, he's, uh..." Sugar started awkwardly, trying to cover for his old friend.

"Oh, cut the shit, he told me himself. You knew, didn't you?" Brock said, raising his eyebrow. Sugar gulped a little.

"Yeah," Sugar said. "I mean, I was his landlord. Whole thing started in my bar. How could I not?"

"Yeah, I, uh, figured as much," Brock said, awkwardly trying to hide his anger. "So, if you knew... why didn't you tell any of us?"

Sugar sighed and sunk into the armchair. This was a question he hadn't really ever wanted to answer.

"It's complicated. And I don't mean that as just a bullshit excuse, it's genuinely complicated," Sugar said. This wasn't the reaction Brock expected. "See, part of it is, I used to see myself as a neutral party in Banshee. If I'd told you or any of the other deputies about Hood, that'd have broken that. Suddenly, I'd lose half my business. You get that, right?"

Brock didn't like it, but he got it.

"Yeah," he said, frowning. "I can understand that, I guess. Don't wanna kill your income."

"That, and, well..." Sugar started again.

"And, well, what?" Brock asked.

"I don't know if you ever picked up on this, but... Hood wasn't a bad guy," Sugar said.

"Wasn't a... Sugar, he fucking lied to the entire police-" Brock started, angrily.

"Sheriff, you don't know the whole story," Sugar cut him off. "Hood didn't... he didn't really set this up at all. This wasn't a lie he deliberately made. That man walked into my bar with no identity, not even a goddamned name to give me, and circumstance, coupled with two of Proctor's men being _stupid assholes_ and the real Hood not being much smarter, basically handed the name Lucas Hood to him on a platter, complete with a job where he'd get to do some right, and where he'd get paid to protect the only two people he really cared about. I thought he was stupid at the time for doing that, and, honestly, he probably was. But, the more I think about it in hindsight, and the more I try to put myself in his shoes..." Sugar sighed.

Brock blinked.

"The more you start to realize that was kind of his best and only play," Brock said. "Fuck."

"The way I think about it, just because Hood was bullshitting people about who he was _before_ he came to Banshee, doesn't mean he was bullshitting people about who he was while he was here. Like I said, he wasn't a bad guy; Hood's got a good heart, and that man wore it on his damn sleeve," Sugar went on. Brock thought back to when Hood was telling him the whole story, or at least what Brock thought was the whole story. Hood had seemed... no, hostile wouldn't be the word, calling him hostile in that moment would be like calling the Atlantic Ocean "big." Hood had looked like he wanted to _kill_ Brock for pressing that hard. In the moment, Brock had taken that as Hood just being incredibly angry that his lie was exposed; it was starting to dawn on him that, no, Hood just genuinely really, really hated thinking about everything he'd been before he became the sheriff of Banshee, PA. Sugar could read the expression on his bearded face, and knew something was up.

"Be honest with me. How hard were you on him when he told you?" Sugar asked.

"Pretty... pretty hard," Brock said. "I said some things I maybe shouldn't have."

"Tell you what," Sugar said. "Hood comes into town every now and then. He doesn't live _that_ far, you know, and he's still got Carrie here. Next time he's down here, I'll let you know, and you two can hash it out."

"Yeah," Brock said. "Yeah, that sounds good."

**Author's Note:**

> You may have picked up on this reading, but... I kind of don't like just how badly everyone takes Hood's real past when they learn it, and I feel like Brock in particular doesn't have any excuse.


End file.
